Alejandro Ciccarelli Manzoni, originally Alessandro Ciccarelli (25 January 1811,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

- 5 May 1879,

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

) was an Italian-born Chilean painter and educator. He was the first Director of the Academy of Painting in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Biography

He began his studies at the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli The Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli (Naples Academy of Fine Arts) is a university-level art school in Naples. In the past it has been known as the Reale Istituto di Belle Arti and the Reale Accademia di Belle Arti. Founded by King Charles VII ...

, and completed them in Rome, where he came under the influence of the Neoclassical painter

Vincenzo Camuccini Vincenzo Camuccini (22 February 1771 – 2 September 1844) was an Italian painter of Neoclassic histories and religious paintings. He was considered the premier academic painter of his time in Rome. Biography Camuccini was born in Rome, and fir ...

. In 1843, he was introduced to Emperor

Pedro II of Brazil Don (honorific), Dom PedroII (2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimity, Magnanimous" ( pt, O Magnânimo), was the List of monarchs of Brazil, second and last monarch of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. ...

, who hired him as a

court painter A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or princely family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Painters were the most common, but the cour ...

and Master of Painting for the Empress consort, Teresa Cristina. At the age of thirty-three, he became the leading artist in Brazil and was charged with reorganizing the

Imperial Academy of Fine Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...

Río de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Six years later, in 1849, the Chilean

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throug ...

in Brazil, Carlos Hochkolf, invited him to come to Chile and help establish an art academy there. He accepted the offer and was instrumental in creating the

Academy of Painting (Santiago, Chile) Academy of Painting (), also known as the School of Fine Arts of Santiago ( ''de Santiago''), was a Chilean art school, founded on March 17, 1849 in Santiago, Chile. The school produced many works for the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts, wh ...

. He served as director of the academy of twenty years; focusing on the European

Academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

tradition, with focus on the Greco-Roman canons. The institution was often criticized for discouraging creativity and ignoring the artistic possibilities of Chile itself. Among his harshest critics were the French-born painter, and one of the academy's first students, Antonio Smith. Despite these criticisms, most of Chile's prominent painters of the time began as his students; including

Nicolás Guzmán Bustamante Nicolás Guzmán Bustamante (1850–February 12, 1928) was a Chilean painter and draftsman. His art is categorized as romanticism and realism. Biography Guzmán Bustamante, started off as a sculptor and continued as a painter. He was an outsta ...

, Pascual Ortega,

Pedro Lira Pedro Francisco Lira Rencoret (17 May 1845, Santiago – 20 April 1912, Santiago) was a Chilean painter and art critic, who organized exhibitions that led to the establishment of the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. He is best known for h ...

, Cosme San Martín,

Onofre Jarpa ''Onofre'' is a genus of Brazilian jumping spiders that was first described by G. R. S. Ruiz & Antônio Domingos Brescovit in 2007. it contains only three species, found in the Amazon basin of Brazil: '' O. carnifex'', '' O. necator'', and '' O ...

and Agustina Gutiérrez. In 1853 he became a Chilean citizen. In 1869, he resigned his position at the academy and was replaced by the German-born painter, Ernst Kirchbach. He remained in Chile until his death. His works include an unknown, though large, number of portraits as well as religious and mythological scenes; based on Classical models. The motif of the "Painting-within-a-painting" had a particular appeal for him. A few colorful landscapes stand out as exceptions.

References

Sources

Biography
@ the Library of the

Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts The Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts ( es, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes or ), located in Santiago, Chile, is one of the major centers for Chilean art and for broader South American art. Established in 1880 (making it the oldest in South Am ...

* Lima, Valeria; Quiroga, Samuel. "Ciccarelli: paisagem em contradição". In: Hoffmann, Ana, et al. (Eds.) ''História da arte: coleções, arquivos e narrativas''. São Paulo: Editora Urutau, 2015, pp. 239 – 257.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciccarelli, Alejandro 1811 births 1879 deaths Painters from Naples Chilean painters Italian emigrants to Chile Naturalized citizens of Chile Court painters Academy of Painting (Santiago, Chile) faculty